Wire-fence machine



A. G. JOHNSON.

WIRE FENCE MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 24, I916.

Patented Sept. 13, 19214 2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

LSQQQQSQ INVENT A. G. JOHNSON.

WIRE FENCE MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 24. 1918.

1,3902%. P entedsept. 13,1921.

2 SHEETS--SHEET 2.

INVENTU are.

AUGUST G. JOMISON, UT MQNESSEN, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR 'IO PITTSBURGH STEEL COMPANY, 01F PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, A. GORPURATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

WIRE-FENGE MACHINE.

Specification of Letters IlPatent.

Patented Sept. 13, 1921..

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Aocns'r G. JoHNson', a citizen of the United States, and resident of Monessen, in the count of Westmoreland and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Wire-Fence Machines; and I do hereby declare the followin to be a full, clear, and exact description t ereof.

My invention relates to mechanism for the manufacture of fabricated Wire-fences of the design set forth and described in an application filed by me of even date herewith, Serial No. 259,590, said fence consisting of strand-wires and stay-wires, the staywires being arched at their upper ends and overlapping the adjoining wires, and said stay-wires alternately extending to the full height of the fence and to less than the full height.

The object of my invention is to provide simple and efficient mechanism for fabricating the above described fence, and to these ends the invention consists, generally stated, in means for feeding the stay-wires across the strand-wires, the stay-wires being fed alternately to the full height of the fenceand to a lesser height, and means for arching said stay-wires so as to overlap the adjoining wires.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a face view showing the fence in process fabrication, the view being more or less diagrammatic; Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-2, looking in the direction of the arrows; Figs. 3, 4 and 5 are enlarged details of the mechanism for arching the stay wires; Figs. 6 and 7 are views showing the ratchet and pawl mechanism for giving the long and short feed to the stay wires; Fig. 8 is a sectional view of the gear and feed rolls for the sta wire and Fig. 9 is a fragmentary vertica sectional view showing somewhat diagrammatically the means by which the welding members are reciprocated toward and from the work.

In the drawings, the numeral 2 designates a suitable frame in which is mounted the shaft 3, to which is kc ed the arm 4. This arm 4 carries the paw 5, which is ada ted to enga e the ratchet 6 loosely mount on the sha t 3. Connected to the ratchet 6, so as to rotate therewithfis the gear wheel 7. A trip is provided for the pawl 5, said trip consisting of the roller 8 mounted on the bracket 9 carried by the frame 2.

The ratchet 6. is provided with two sets of teeth 10, 10 and 11, 11 so arranged, as will be more fully hereinafter described, that the pawl engaging said teeth alternately will act to feed the stay wires alternately longer and shorter distances to give the construction of fence, as set forth in the above referred to application.

The gear wheel 7 meshes with the idler 12, said idler meshing with the gear-wheel 13 connected to the gear wheel 1a, which meshes with the pinion 15. Secured to the gear wheel 14 and the pinion 15 are the feed-rolls 16 and 17 respectively.

The stay-wire 18 is fed by the rollers 16 and 17, said stay-wire passing through suitable guides 20 in front of and back of said feed rolls.

- A shaft 21 is mounted in the frame 2. Mounted loosely on said shaft is the eccen tric 22 with the pit'man 23 connected by the pin 24 to the arm 25. The arm 25 is pivotally mounted in the swiveled clevis 26 so that said arm has a vertical movement and also a horizontal movement.

The arm 25 has at its inner end the finger 27 which engages the cam slot 28 in the bracket 29 secured to the frame.

The forward end of the arm 25 carries the bending pin 30 which is adapted to engage the end of the stay wire and bend said stay- Wire over the forming die 31, which is arched to give the proper curve to the upper end of the stay-wire, as clearly indicated in Figs. 4: and 5. The forming dies 31 are carried by the bar 31 which is arranged to be moved to and fro at proper intervals, to engage and hold each stay-wire during the bending operation and during the welding operation which takes place at the same time- Associated with the forming dies 31 are electric contact members, one of which is shown at 31 on Fig. 2. The bar 31 also carries other welding contact members 31', one for each intersection between the strandwires and the stay-wires. The purpose of these contact members is to weld the overlapping portions of the stay-wires and also the intersections between the strand-wires and the stay-wires. To this end, these contact members are combined with an electrical welding circuit and control mechanism which may be of the hind well brown in this art. Each of the movable contact members 31 carried by the bar 31 cooperates with a stationary contact member 31 on the opposite side of the fence and the overlapping and intersecting portions of the stay-wires are welded, while the next succeeding wire is being arched, by being clamped between the contact members 31" and 31". Electric welding current may be supplied, as shown diagrammatically on Fig. 9, through lead wires 40 and 41 connected across any suitable source of power.

The bar 31 carrying the contact members 31" is reciprocated toward and from the work by any convenient mechanism, for example by means of the connections shown in Figs. 1 and 9. As shown in these figures,

the shaft 21 carries two spaced cams 44 each of which has a circularly curved section 45 of small radius and a circularly curved section 46 of larger radius and which bears against a roller 47 carriedat the end of a horizontal reciprocating rod 48, the outer end of which is pivotally connected at 49 to a lever 50 The-upper end of the lever 50. is pivoted at 51 to a stationary bracket 52 and at its upper end is pivotally attached at 53 to the bar 31.

A suitable-switch may be rovided, as is usual in this art, for control ing the welding current at the time when the contact members 31 are in engagement with the wor So far as the present invention is concerned, this switch may be omitted and the contact made and broken by the on agement between the contact members and the work. The wire feedin welding and bend-- ing mechanism may be riven in proper time relation by .an suitable ower connections. As shown on ig. 1 the nding and welding mechanisms are both operated directly from the shaft 21 and the shaft 3 which actuates the intermittent feed device may be driven from the shaft 21 through miter gears 55 one of which is secured to the shaft 21 and the other to the shaft 3.

Mounted on the shaft 21 and keyed thereto is the arm 32 carrying the pawl 33. ratchet 34 is carried by a sleeve 34 that is loose] mounted on the shaft 21 and connecte to the eccentric 22, said ratchet having the teeth 35. A trip roller 36 is mounted on the support 37 in position to trip the pawl, as will more fully hereinafter appear.

Mounted on the shaft 21 to rotate continuously with this shaft is. the eccentric 38 connected by the pitman 39 to an arm 40 similar to the arm 25, and said arm is mounted in a manner identical with the arm 25 andlikewise carries similar bending mechanism for bendin the long stay-wires.

In t e operation of the machine, the strand-wires 41 are fed in a direction at right angles to the stay-wires, and as my invention does not relate to the feeding or these strand-wires, it has not been deemednecessary to illustrate this mechanism, as any well known form of mechanism may be used for this purpose. To form the fence covered by the above referred to application, it is necessary to change the distance of the feed of the alternate stay-wires, and to effect this result is the purpose of the pawland ratchetdevice mounted on the shaft 3. As shown in Fig. 1, the pawl 5 has been tripped by the roll 8 and is about to disengage itself from said roll. It will be apparent upon its disen- I gagement. it will travel along the delay face of the ratchet until it comes into engagement with the tooth 11 as indicated in Fig. 6. The engagement of the pawl with the ratchet will rotate the gear wheel 7, and through it the intermediate gearing which drives the feed rolls 16 and 17 so that while said awl is in engagement with the tooth 11 o the ratchet, the stay-wire will be fed forward, and this will continue until, as shown in Fig. 6, the pawl reaches the tri roll 8. In Fig. 6 I have indicated by t e line a1;--m the amount of rotation'imparted to the gear wheel 7. This will be sufiicientv to feed the stay-wire a full length, and upon the disengagement of the pawl from the roll 8, the pawl travels over the ratchet and the feed mechanism remains at a standstill until the ratchet enga es the tooth 10,

whereupon the feed mec anism is again operated, but for a shorter length of time, due to the fact that by the time the ratchet has rotated from y to y, as shown in Fig. 7, the

the pawl and stop the trip-roll 8 will tri n this way a short stay 1s feed mechanism.

A formed, and when the stay has been cut the eccentric 22 is timed to operate by the pawl 33 engaging one of the teeth 35 of the ratchet 34, so that the arm 25 is operated to bend the end of the short stay-wire during the travel of the pawl to the next tooth. The pm 30 on said arm moves in a straight line for a certain distance and then, as indicated in Fig. 5, moves inwardly to give the curve to the wire. This is all accomplished by the action of the cam slot 28, the pin 24 being free to travel through the opening in the pitman 23. The bending mechanism for the short stays or wires operates intermittently, and this intermittent operation is effected by the pawl and ratchet 33 and 34, the pawl being tripped by the trip-roll 36, and only neee aea being brought into operation when said pawl comes into engagement with one of the teeth 35.

It will be apparent that two sets of teeth will be required on the ratchet 6, for as indicated in Fig. 1, the pawl has just been disengaged from one of the short stay teeth 10, and during the pawls travel from that tooth to the tooth 11 of the long stay-wire, the bending of the short stay will be taking place. The teeth 11 and 11 are therefore arranged at opposite sides of the ratchet, as are the teeth 10 and 10*.

What I claim is 1. In a wire fence machine the combination with a suitable frame, of means for feeding the stay-wires transversely of the strand-wires, said stay-wires being fed the full height of said fence and to a distance less than the full height, alternately, means for arching the upper end of each of said stay-wires toward an adjacent stay-wire, and means for securing said stay-wires to said strand-wires.

2. In a wire fence machine the combination with a suitable frame, of means for feeding the stay-wires transversely of the strand-wires, the stay wires being fed to the full height of said fence and to a distance less than said full height, alternately, means for arching the upper end of each of said stay-wires, means forsecuring said staywires to said strand-wires, and means for uniting the overlapping arched portions of said stay-wires.

3. lin a wire fence machine the combination with a suitable frame, of each of feedrolls for the stay-wires, means for operating said feed-rolls whereby the stay-wires are fed by the same feed rolls to the full height of said fence and to a distance less than the full height of said fence, alternately, and means for securing said stay-wires to the strand-wires.

4. In a wire fence machine the combination with a suitable frame, of a shaft, means for drivingsame, a pawl carried by said shaft, a ratchet loosely mounted on said shaft having two sets of oppositely arranged teeth, tripplng mechanism in the ath of said pawl, feed-rolls for feeding t e stay wires, connections between said ratchet and said feed-rolls whereby said feed rolls are given different degrees of rotation alternately to feed said stay-wires to the full height of said fence and to a distance less than said full height, alternately, and means for securing said stay-wires to said strandwires.

5. In a wire fence machine the combination with a suitable frame, of means for feeding the stay-wires transversely of the ing said arm whereby said arm moves said pin in a straight line and then in a curved. line for bending said wire around said forming die. v

I 6. In a wire fence machine the combination with a suitable frame, of means for feeding the sta -wire transversely of the strand-wires, a orming die for curving the upper ends of said stay-wires, an arm mounted to move vertically and horizontally, a bending pin carried by said arm, a shaft, an eccentric on said shaft, a pitman, a pin connecting said pitman with said arm and having a sliding connection therewith, a finger on the inner end of said arm, and a stationary member having a cam-slot engaged by said linger.

7. In a wire fence machine, the combination with a suitable frame of a pair of feedrolls for feeding stay-wires, and means for imparting alternately different degrees of rotation to the said feed rolls, whereby the stay-wires are fed to the full height of said fence and to a distance less than the full height of said fence, alternately, and means for securing said stay-wiresto the strand wires of the fence.

8. in a wire fence machine, the combination with a suitable frame, of a pair of feedrolls for feeding stay-wires, and means for imparting alternately difierent degrees of rotation to the said feed rolls oomprislng a driven shaft, a ratchet loosely mounted thereon and having a plurality of pairs of diameterically opposed teeth, a pawl carried by said shaft and adapted to cohperate with the said ratchet, means for tripping the said pawl during each revolution of the said pawl, and driving connections between said ratchet and said feed rolls.

9. lln a wire fence machine the combmation with a suitable frame, of means for feeding the stay-wires transversely of the strand-wires, a forming die for curving the upper ends of said stay-wires to meet the next succeeding stay-wire, a movable bending member, and means for causing the said movable bending member to move parallel to the forming surface of the'said die.

In testimony whereof, 1,.the said AUGUST G. JoHNsoN, have hereunto set my hand.

AUGUST G. JOHNSON.

' Witnesses:

Rom". D. 'lorrnN, R. W. RUTH.

pin'carried by said am, and means for mov- 

